Dynamic, vibrant, impressive – using these adjectives to describe an artist’s work may sound a bit over the top. But when describing the works of home-grown Malaysian artist Azlan bin Adam, it is certainly no exaggeration.

Azlan has established distinctive elements and characteristics in his works of bold, vibrant and brilliant colours. His forte and passion lie in three different branches of art: decorative naïve, modern art and abstracts.

He first started painting decorative naïve and modern art before moving to abstract art in 2000. He now fashions himself as an expressionist abstract artist who has been actively involved in the art community for almost 20 years. Abstract expressionism is a form of art in which the artist expresses himself purely with the use of form and colour. It emphasized the depiction of emotions rather than the objects. Most artists of the movement favor large canvasses, dramatic colours and loose brushwork. It is also the art of the emotive, the art of tension provoked by consciousness of the forms which surround modern human kind.

He really enjoys transforming his inner desire, feelings and expression of soul on the canvas until the forms are totally represented by lines and colours. His artworks are dominantly represented by spontaneous brush strokes overlapped by repeated lines and dots. He liked the expressive and spontaneous brush strokes and gestures on the canvas. His works depicted the evolution of nature, freedom of mind, love, beauty, honesty, the truth and thoughts of life.

He recently acquired, and developed, the MIND SKETCHING series – another journey of discovery indicating that everything we do it is started and initiated by our mind.

ARTIST STATEMENT

“ Colours represent statement of life, harmony, survival and hope. My strong and bold colours form a scientific approach of healing minds and eyes colour therapy. It also unwinds and exhilarates the mood of the viewers. Abstract Expressionism is a form of expressing inner feelings where I am not bound by formalities such as following and adhering to the rules and guidelines of shape and form as well as colours used.”

THE THEMES: 1. VIRGIN JUNGLE

2. SOUL OF THE JUNGLE

3. SPIRIT OF JUNGLE

The jungle is often described as mysterious, impenetrable, uncomfortable and inaccessible. The virgin jungle is a commonly used phrase and relates to the descriptions of it being UNTOUCHED and whole. Most people would often launch an in-depth description of the physical component of the ecosystem, marveling at the complexity of its functions being clearly impressed with its sophistication. In this context, descriptions of its separateness from people and its lack of personal becomingness suggest that there is an inherent friendliness. Reference to the gender of nature and the jungle were only occasional but were consistently feminine.

Spirit of place while on one level inherent in the physical environment is experienced by human beings through a myriad of different world-views and discourses. The socially-constructed aspects of spirit of place necessarily create diversity. The soulful relationships with the nature may let the artists to articulate and communicate such numinous and nebulous experiences and concepts as spirit of place. The expressions are inspiring and can reach people on a deep soul level. On the border between light and dark we dwell, between the familiar tamed land of the bright green rolling dairy pastures and the mysterious writhing intertwining of life-death-life in the shadowy green. The artist described spiritual experiences in the jungle as though he was allowing the outside into him rather than trying to preserve the space for himself by shutting out noise or things of that sort. He could feel the spiritual connections. The word ‘soul’ and ‘spirit’ and the concepts of merging and being at one with the nature were largely confined to the alternative lifestyles and to a lesser extent the environmental activists. To the artists the jungle is the place where life begins. In this context the artist is relating the jungle with our daily life in most of his artworks under the themes.